No Kidding! Chicken Manure is Really Beneficial for Your Garden

A beautiful garden comes with a lot of hard work. Not just watering, but manuring is equally important. Chicken manure is an excellent source of nitrogen for the plants in your garden. Let's get to know its benefits so that we could add value to our beloved plants from its usage.

Gardenerdy Staff

Last Updated: Nov 29, 2018

Owning a garden with beautiful and eye-catchy varieties of plants isn't enough. It is really important that appropriate care is taken which includes providing the right environment and weather conditions.

One can't overlook fertilizers, both chemical and organic. They aid the growth of plants and boost soil fertility. Mixing with the soil or spraying them are the two ways to add fertilizers. They help to provide nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in amounts needed for plant growth. A natural fertilizer, chicken manure, is chicken poop with bedding straw.

The chemicals present in commercial fertilizers are not the best for all plant varieties. Their excess use affects the plants negatively and is undesirable for their healthy growth. Hence, there's a need of natural fertilizers which are made of biological components that are of great advantage to all plant types.

Chicken manure is one of the most preferred and popular types mainly because of its availability. Not only is it efficient in providing the essential minerals and nutrients to plants, but it also acts as a soil conditioner and helps to create the right soil texture which allows maximum porosity and ventilation.

You can buy the fertilizer at the stores nearby or ask a local farmer to provide you the required amount. However, you need to make sure that the poop is fresh and would serve the purpose. Chicken manure has high levels of nitrogen and therefore you need to compost it so as to reduce its nitrogen content. The composting can be done as suggested further.

After arranging the chicken bedding, you need to make a compost bin. Take a large garbage bin or a wooden box for this.

Pile up straw shavings, organic waste, chicken poop and dump them in the bin. You can add vegetable and fruit waste, any other organic waste.

Add water for enough moisture and create a damp environment. Keep the bin for 2-3 months.

What you need to do is turn the compost every alternate day so that the process is even, throughout. The aerobic environment along with the organic waste provides the best possible conditions for microorganisms to grow and flourish.

Their metabolic reactions release gases and help in the formation of nitrates which can easily be absorbed by the plants. After a span of around 2 months, you will get a dark-colored soil. You will see the benefits of composting on your plants in a couple of months.

The best part about it is that you can continue using homemade compost bins for years by addition of fresh ingredients. It will not only aid plant growth but also make the soil more fertile.